Aside from the fact that you can have both vengeance and justice, there’s another missing component in this attempt to draw some equivalence between 911 and the War on Terror in the Tribune:
What the American people got was vengeance not justice, an understandable human desire given the character of the attacks on the twin towers. But vengeance, served up in particularly cold-blooded form in this case, is neither a substitute for foreign policy nor an exhibit of justice, seen to be done. And if it is justice that is being sought, where is the justice for all those innocent Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani civilians killed, accidentally, erroneously or carelessly in the “war on terror”, a phrase now widely seen as a huge mistake since it united rather than divided the West’s perceived enemies?
Can you tell what it is? Iraqis, Afghans, and Pakistani civilians are killed erroneously, accidentally, or carelessly by Western forces.
However innocent Iraqis, Afghans, and Pakistanis have been killed deliberately by Al Qaeda and their friends.
Al Qaeda in Iraq, for example, were responsible for stoking up sectarian conflict, car bombings, and beheadings of Iraqis who disagree with them. This occurred to such an extent that he received some criticism from Ayman al-Zawahri, although after Al-Zarqawi was taken out by the US Bin Laden agreed with these methods.
In the tape, bin Laden addressed ”those who accuse Abu Musab of killing certain sectors of the Iraqi people,” referring to the campaign of suicide bombings by al-Zarqawi’s followers targeting Shiites. Al-Zarqawi was killed in a June 7 airstrike northeast of Baghdad by U.S. warplanes.
”Abu Musab had clear instructions to focus his fight on the occupiers, particularly the Americans and to leave aside anyone who remains neutral,” bin Laden said.
”But for those who refused (neutrality) and stood to fight on the side of the crusaders against the Muslims, then he should kill them whoever they are, regardless of their sect or tribe. For supporting infidels against Muslims is a major sin,” he said.
In a number of timelines of Al Qaeda attacks I have seen since Bin Laden died, the focus is on the big attacks on Western Interests. However, Al Qaeda’s strategy in Iraq that led to the deaths of thousands of individuals. Al Qaeda was rejected within Iraq, including armed uprisings, and its popularity plummeted throughout the region. While some are now arguing the Arab Spring has sidelined Al Qaeda, it shouldn’t be under-estimated how much Al Qaeda side-lined itself by killing Muslims in the name of Islam.
The Tribune is wrong, Iraq did not unite the West’ enemies, it led to Al Qaeda’s greatest mistake: over-estimating the capacity of the Muslim world to excuse its blood-soaked ideology on their home turf.
The justice meted out to Bin Laden was not just for Americans, or those from other countries killed on 911 – it was a World Trade Centre. It was also justice for the thousands killed in an unnecessary and vicious war against the Iraqi people by Al Qaeda, and all those on who have died as a result of Bin Laden’s influence in other nations.
Justice for all.
